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UBC Theses and Dissertations
Hot girls kicking : violent women and genre hybridity in postmodern action cinema Steenberg, Lindsay Joan
Abstract
The spectacle of sexuality and violence embodied on screen by the character of the deadly woman has caused simultaneous and alternating fascination and alarm in spectators. While violent women have been represented in a large number of films since the 1 970s, in recent years there has been a significant shift in their characterizations. Rather than the vixens of sexploitation cinema or the muscular heroines of 1990s blockbusters, the contemporary action heroine is informed by the global popular imaginary and by postmodern genre hybridization. This thesis examines the transnational and hybrid nature of these texts by grouping together similar films based on the character of the professional female fighter - which I have titled, Hot Girl Kicking, in order to sum up her distinct combination of violence and the erotic. Over the course of the thesis, patterns of structure, functionality and spectacle emerge in Hot Girl Kicking films due to their postmodern emphasis on surface, fracture, and cross cultural genre hybridization, and their ultimate function: rupturing the systems which hold them. This thesis first examines the onscreen construction of the aggressive female body in contemporary U.S. action films, followed by the addition of stylized fighting inspired by Asian genres in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Lee 2000), and finally the exaggerated self reflexive uses of genre and violence in Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 (Tarantino 2003/4). Widening the site of rupture from a preoccupation with the body of the heroine to the global stage highlights the emancipatory potential of cross cultural and genre hybridization. The proposed hybrid sub-genre of the Hot Girl Kicking represents news ways of blurring boundaries and challenging the ordering systems of classical Hollywood film form, U.S. cultural imperialism, and patriarchy.
Item Metadata
| Title |
Hot girls kicking : violent women and genre hybridity in postmodern action cinema
|
| Creator | |
| Publisher |
University of British Columbia
|
| Date Issued |
2005
|
| Description |
The spectacle of sexuality and violence embodied on screen by the character of
the deadly woman has caused simultaneous and alternating fascination and alarm in
spectators. While violent women have been represented in a large number of films since
the 1 970s, in recent years there has been a significant shift in their characterizations.
Rather than the vixens of sexploitation cinema or the muscular heroines of 1990s
blockbusters, the contemporary action heroine is informed by the global popular
imaginary and by postmodern genre hybridization. This thesis examines the transnational
and hybrid nature of these texts by grouping together similar films based on the character
of the professional female fighter - which I have titled, Hot Girl Kicking, in order to sum
up her distinct combination of violence and the erotic.
Over the course of the thesis, patterns of structure, functionality and spectacle
emerge in Hot Girl Kicking films due to their postmodern emphasis on surface, fracture,
and cross cultural genre hybridization, and their ultimate function: rupturing the systems
which hold them. This thesis first examines the onscreen construction of the aggressive
female body in contemporary U.S. action films, followed by the addition of stylized
fighting inspired by Asian genres in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Lee 2000), and
finally the exaggerated self reflexive uses of genre and violence in Kill Bill Volumes 1 and
2 (Tarantino 2003/4). Widening the site of rupture from a preoccupation with the body
of the heroine to the global stage highlights the emancipatory potential of cross cultural
and genre hybridization. The proposed hybrid sub-genre of the Hot Girl Kicking
represents news ways of blurring boundaries and challenging the ordering systems of
classical Hollywood film form, U.S. cultural imperialism, and patriarchy.
|
| Genre | |
| Type | |
| Language |
eng
|
| Date Available |
2009-12-16
|
| Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
|
| Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
|
| DOI |
10.14288/1.0092225
|
| URI | |
| Degree | |
| Program | |
| Affiliation | |
| Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
|
| Graduation Date |
2005-11
|
| Campus | |
| Scholarly Level |
Graduate
|
| Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
|
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Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.